The Ramblings of a Psychologist by Strag Gerald;

Author:Strag, Gerald;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group
Published: 2020-03-18T20:38:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Margaret Wearing

It’s 5:15 in the evening, and the late afternoon light coming through the wooden blinds cast shadows that darkened the room. I was sitting in my high-backed chair trying not to stare at the wall clock through eyes that were at half-mast. The day had taken its toll, and my strength and patience had all but run out.

At this point, I was looking for an opportunity to end the last clinical interview of the day. I have learned to recognized when it is time to say good night. A tell-tale sign is when I listen to my patients without hearing them or feeling their emotions.

My last patient of the day was Margaret Wearing, a 54-year-old patient who was looking to resolve her problem with depression, a problem that is intensified by loneliness and interpersonal avoidance. Professional decorum prevented me from broadcasting my honest thoughts regarding the session, but I sure wished it didn’t.

Margaret, you haven’t stopped talking for 47 minutes. For the past six sessions you have screamed, cried, and complained that no one loves you. Would you say there is a pattern here? I get the feeling that your external behavior is one of the factors creating distance between you and the people who know you.

I changed my position to better make eye contact with Margaret. I needed to stay focused for the remainder of the session, or at least appear that way. Regardless of how I sat in the chair, visual contact with Margaret was fleeting and quickly broken.

***

In a virtual reality environment, a computer is used to create sensations that are audible and visual. These phenomena, referred to as immersion, hinge on the quality of the telepathic medium and its capacity to enhance perceptual distortion electronically. Immersion is capable of giving someone the feeling of being part of another world and to be able to interact with it in a meaningful way. Even without a computer, Margaret was able to transform her clinical hour in a modestly decorated office into a romantic interlude with her psychologist.

Margaret filled me in to what was happening in her mind during the session, and I was horrified.

“You had your way with me. I recall you kissing me and running your hand up my legs. I recall your heavy breathing, and you being on top of me,” Margaret said.

“If I can prove to you that those events never happened, what would you say?”

“How would you do that?”

“Remember the paper you signed giving me permission to tape these sessions? I have the session on video recording. Your session was taped. There was no romantic interlude. I have to refute your story with the recorded version of the truth. There was no romantic event as you imagined it.”

The combination of sensing you are somewhere other than where you are and interacting with it in meaningful ways is called telepresence. This seemed to explain what Margaret was experiencing. Without a computer, the same phenomena and the same perceptual experiences are defined as psychosis, replete with delusions and hallucinations.

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